Closing
of Troy Plaza Price Chopper sparks concerns that company is
abandoning cities in favor of suburban superstores

On
a recent Sunday afternoon, the Price Chopper Supermarket on
Hoosick Street in Brunswick was bustling. Shoppers crowded
the aisles as they cruised for fresh produce, packaged goods
and the like, and waited in often-long lines at the deli and
the fresh fish and meat counters. Like many of its counterparts
in the region’s other suburbs, this store, which sits alongside
busy Route 7 just outside the city limits of Troy, features
most of the amenities associated with contemporary supermarket
shopping: full-service meat, fish and deli departments; an
in-store bakery including nearly two dozen varieties of bagels;
an organic-foods section; a floral shop; a pharmacy; and so
on. Also like most other Price Chopper supermarkets, it is
open 24 hours a day.

Two miles west in aging Troy Plaza, in an urban, mixed-income
neighborhood that is home to many minorities, students and
elderly, is a very different sort of Price Chopper. To the
right of the front doors is a large open section that looks
roughly as large as the produce section of a suburban supercenter,
only here, the produce is crowded into a small corner. Much
of the floor space is empty, and the rest is taken up by four
large bins of discount items that look decidedly un-picked-through.
Much of the shelf space in the store is empty or sparsely
stocked. There is no deli, no bakery, no fresh fish or meat
counter. On a recent Tuesday afternoon, there were two registers
open, which was more than enough to handle the 10 or so customers
in the store at the time. And unlike most other Price Choppers,
the Troy Plaza store shuts its doors at 6 PM every day.

If it looks like it’s getting ready to shut its doors for
good, it is: Golub Corporation, the supermarket chain’s parent
company, has announced that this Saturday will be the Troy
Plaza store’s last day. And that news has some neighborhood
residents and other concerned citizens up in arms.

“I
don’t see how Price Chopper can pull out of downtown,” said
Amy Halloran, who lives two blocks from the Troy Plaza store
and used to be a frequent shopper there. “[When] I grew up,
Price Chopper was our grocery store. And it felt like it was
a real community market. And I feel really betrayed as a homeowner
in an urban environment that a community market can’t stay
in the community.”

But some observers believe Price Chopper’s corporate strategy
is to abandon urban markets and concentrate on the suburban
supercenters, citing the closing a few years back of the Rensselaer
store next to the Amtrak station, and the more recent shuttering
of the Watt Street store in Schenectady. That market’s last
day was March 16; the very next day, Price Chopper celebrated
the opening of a new supercenter in suburban Niskayuna.

And some feel that the company never intended to keep the
Troy Plaza store going after it was damaged by a fire in fall
of 2000. Eventually, a $500,000 renovation was done and the
store reopened in June 2001, but not before the local chapter
of NAACP called a public meeting to address rumors that the
store wasn’t going to reopen, despite a promise that had been
made by company chairman Neil Golub. At that meeting, Price
Chopper representatives assured community members that the
store would reopen.

“My
gut feeling is that they were going to close it from the beginning,
after the fire,” said Halloran.

Such suspicions were nurtured by the nature of the supermarket
that did reopen. The Troy Plaza store conspicuously lacks
the amenities of its suburban counterparts, and a 6 PM closing
time is unheard of for supermarkets in this region—not to
mention inconvenient for the many 9-to-5ers and RPI students
who live nearby. “Nearly a third of its floor space was occupied
by sale bins featuring light bulbs, plastic sandals, bottles
of cheap salad dressing (no charge for the dust) and remaindered
pharmaceutical items,” complained Jon Flanders, who lives
near the store on 10th street. “The rest of the inventory
was minimal, really little better stocked that your average
convenience store.

“It
was basically a convenient store without convenient store
hours,” he added, noting the early closing time. “I believe
they set it up to fail.”

“Despite
having spent about $500,000 to totally refurbish the store,
it never regained the business it had done before the fire,”
countered Maureen Murphy, consumer services manager for Price
Chopper Corporation. “It hasn’t met minimum sales expectations,
and doesn’t show any sign that it will. . . . We have to make
business decisions that are in the interest of continued success
and growth for Price Chopper.”

“We’re
certainly not abandoning the city of Troy,” she added, citing
a new facility at Hudson Valley Plaza, out near Hudson Valley
Community College.

Murphy also suggested that while the Troy Plaza store was
closed for renovations, neighborhood residents discovered
the Brunswick store two miles up the road, and now prefer
to do their shopping there. “Once they saw what the new store
had to offer in a larger, newer facility,” she said, “I think
they remained there.”

Ironically, nearly a dozen Price Chopper customers interviewed
for this story agreed with Murphy on that point—but stressed
that that very customer drain is a large part of the problem.
The neighborhoods surrounding Troy Plaza—not unlike the Center
Square and Hudson Park neighborhoods near another urban Price
Chopper, on Madison Avenue in Albany—are home to a very diverse
population that spans poor to affluent. The suburban supercenters
actually compete for the more affluent of these customers,
who generally have the option to drive, and will travel a
longer distance to do their shopping if they perceive a significant
difference in store quality. As more people abandoned the
Troy Plaza and its limited hours and services, they left behind
the poor, the carless and the elderly—who apparently are not
generating enough business to keep the store afloat.

“I
felt really bad when I heard they’re closing,” said Gertrude
Beaudoin, 80. “It’s bad for people like me who live alone
and don’t drive a car.”

As it is, Beaudoin takes a bus to the Troy Plaza Price Chopper,
and said she would have to transfer to a different bus to
shop in Brunswick, which she said is too hard for her. But,
she added, “It’s a beautiful store—I wish they could open
one like that here.”

On the other hand, reported Halloran, “I have a lot of elderly
neighbors who walk to the [Troy Plaza] store, and they didn’t
like the bigger [Brunswick] store, because they got tired
halfway down an aisle.”

Murphy stressed that a CDTA bus line serves the Brunswick
store, and pointed out that during the renovation at Troy
Plaza, Price Chopper offered free bus service out to Brunswick—and
that it was used by fewer than 12 people a week. “Transportation,”
she said, “doesn’t appear to be as monumental an issue as
it’s being made out to be.”

Troy Deputy Mayor Jim Conroy, who returned a call placed to
Mayor Mark Pattison, expressed disappointment that the Troy
Plaza market was not successful after the renovation, but
lauded the company for making the effort. Conroy acknowledged
the value of having more services within city neighborhoods,
and said the city is actively seeking a replacement market
for the site. One hitch, he pointed out, is that Price Chopper
still has one year left on its Troy Plaza lease—and, ironically,
might be reluctant to free up the space for a competitor.

A coalition of neighborhood residents and community activists
will rally to oppose the supermarket closing today (Thursday)
from 4:30 to 6:15 PM at Troy Plaza. The event is being organized
by Rosa House Peace Community.